WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.460 align:middle line:90%
Hi, everyone.

00:00:02.460 --> 00:00:05.190 align:middle line:84%
Jerome Rothenberg is an
internationally celebrated

00:00:05.190 --> 00:00:09.360 align:middle line:84%
poet, translator, scholar,
editor, and performer

00:00:09.360 --> 00:00:11.640 align:middle line:84%
with more than 90
books of poetry

00:00:11.640 --> 00:00:14.190 align:middle line:84%
and 12 assemblages of
traditional and avant

00:00:14.190 --> 00:00:17.250 align:middle line:84%
garde poetry such as
Technicians of the Sacred

00:00:17.250 --> 00:00:20.940 align:middle line:84%
and the multi-volume
Poems for the Millennium.

00:00:20.940 --> 00:00:24.240 align:middle line:84%
His most recent big
books are Eye of Witness:

00:00:24.240 --> 00:00:27.120 align:middle line:84%
A Jerome Rothenberg
Reader and Barbaric, Vast,

00:00:27.120 --> 00:00:30.930 align:middle line:84%
and Wild: A Gathering of
Outside and Subterranean Poetry

00:00:30.930 --> 00:00:34.620 align:middle line:84%
from Origins to Present,
which is volume five of Poems

00:00:34.620 --> 00:00:35.970 align:middle line:90%
for the Millennium.

00:00:35.970 --> 00:00:41.250 align:middle line:84%
A new book of poems, A Field
on Mars: Poems 2000 to 2015,

00:00:41.250 --> 00:00:45.510 align:middle line:84%
is forthcoming in joint
English and French editions.

00:00:45.510 --> 00:00:49.200 align:middle line:84%
Rothenberg is among the most
prolific and influential

00:00:49.200 --> 00:00:52.740 align:middle line:84%
writers whose works grace the
shelves of the Poetry Center's

00:00:52.740 --> 00:00:54.150 align:middle line:90%
library.

00:00:54.150 --> 00:00:55.950 align:middle line:84%
We have been collecting
his work here

00:00:55.950 --> 00:01:00.960 align:middle line:84%
since the 1960s when the Poetry
Center had not 47,000 books

00:01:00.960 --> 00:01:05.700 align:middle line:90%
but only 1,000 books if that.

00:01:05.700 --> 00:01:08.820 align:middle line:84%
His work has been in
constant consultation

00:01:08.820 --> 00:01:12.660 align:middle line:84%
ever since, informing multiple
generations of writers

00:01:12.660 --> 00:01:16.470 align:middle line:84%
right up to the present
and will continue to do so.

00:01:16.470 --> 00:01:18.960 align:middle line:84%
When we say that a
writer's work is vital,

00:01:18.960 --> 00:01:22.920 align:middle line:84%
we commonly mean that it
is important, essential.

00:01:22.920 --> 00:01:24.750 align:middle line:84%
When it comes to
Jerome Rothenberg,

00:01:24.750 --> 00:01:27.120 align:middle line:90%
we mean this and something more.

00:01:27.120 --> 00:01:29.340 align:middle line:84%
His poetry, scholarship,
and translations

00:01:29.340 --> 00:01:34.230 align:middle line:84%
are brimming with vitality,
with dazzling energy.

00:01:34.230 --> 00:01:36.540 align:middle line:84%
Rothenberg's visit
to us tonight,

00:01:36.540 --> 00:01:39.660 align:middle line:84%
happily coinciding with his
appearance as a keynote speaker

00:01:39.660 --> 00:01:42.510 align:middle line:84%
for the American Literary
Translators Association Annual

00:01:42.510 --> 00:01:45.630 align:middle line:84%
Conference, has been
greatly anticipated

00:01:45.630 --> 00:01:47.520 align:middle line:84%
and has been a long
time in coming.

00:01:47.520 --> 00:01:52.190 align:middle line:84%
So let's all welcome
warmly Jerome Rothenberg.